Hair Love

At the end of April my hair was looking very crisp and frizzled around the edges. We were putting the boys on a screen fast for the month of May, so I decided at the same time I would do a no-heat styling month for my hair, to give it a break. I did that, even though it meant bundling my hair back into a frizzy ponytail every day and I wasn't a fan of that.

I ended up doing a few other things to try to help my hair as well. I started taking collagen supplements. I asked Christopher to pick me up some collagen at Costco. He brought me collagen tablets, which I thought seemed nice and easy. I wondered why people always seem to take it as a drink powder. Then I found out. The dose was six big tablets per day! Still, my hair WAS looking pretty bad after the long winter and all the heat styling, so I decided to go for it anyway. I took them every day during May, and most of this month too, except when we were away from home house sitting and camping.

Of course, collagen is supposed to have skin and nails benefits as well. Silas wanted to know why I was taking the collagen supplements and I tried to explain that women lose collagen as they age, so this was supposed to help me look younger. Then, as he watched me down the six tablets one at a time, he asked, "So Mom, if you took that entire bottle of collagen, would you look like a baby?" I imagined female celebrities on the cover of Us Weekly with the faces of babies, and it was a humorous thought. Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be a concern.

I also promised myself that once I started using my hair dryer and straightening iron again, that I would use a heat protection spray. I haven't done that in years, because I dyed my hair dark brunette for a long time and that seemed to help protect the hair from heat damage. Now that my hair is back to its own natural red, it seems to be more delicate, but it didn't occur to me to use heat protection until I saw how badly damaged it had gotten. At the end of May, I went to Walmart and selected a medium-priced spray, Nexxus Prep & Protect. It seems to work really well and also defrizzes and protects against humidity.

Coincidentally, during May, my sister sent me a blow dryer hairbrush. I had never used one before. It is so useful. I think it cut my hair's heat exposure in half, because if I dry my hair with the brush I barely have to use the straightening iron at all. Plus, as they say, brushing distributes the scalp's natural oils throughout the hair. So it's healthier than just using the hair dryer and straightener like I did before.

Finally, in the second week of June I was able to get my hair cut. A little difficult to fit into our tight budget, but it meant a lot that we were able to squeeze it in there. That cost $58 plus a tip.

Between the heat break, collagen, heat protecting spray, blow dryer hair brush, and fresh haircut, my hair is looking 100% better than it was two months ago. I'm not sure which to give the credit to. It just seems like everything together worked out well. After a long, cold winter, it's nice to have a fresh haircut and healthy hair for summer.

("Hair Love" by Matthew A. Cherry is an adorable picture book about a little girl whose dad tries to help her fix her hair for a special occastion. Not being interested in hair styles, my boys didn't like the book much, but I loved it.)